A mum says her life has been destroyed following a hernia repaired with a mesh implant – with pain so severe she considered ending her life.
Roseanna Clarkin, 38, has suffered excruciating pain since medics used mesh products to repair the issue.
Now she wants the use of mesh in hernia operations to be suspended, as it has for vaginal mesh following years of suffering by thousands of women.
Revealing her own hell, Roseanna told how she was in so much pain last month she asked for guidance about how to legally end her own life.
She said: "It sent me to a very dark place. I contacted Euthanasia UK. I asked how I could legally do this is Scotland."
Roseanna tearfully admitted: "I said to my husband, 'I have had enough of fighting'."
She added: "When I was going to the doctor's after my op, I wasn't believed.
"They told me it was all in my head and even told my husband Brendan 'Don't get roped into this'.
Roseanna said: "I suspect the mesh has moved. But even the other week one of the GPs at my practice was suggesting it was in my head."
Roseanna launched a petition calling for the suspension of mesh in hernia ops. It is going through the public petitions committee at Holyrood.
To date, more than 70 patients or their families have written to the committee about their experiences with hernia mesh implants.
Labour's health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, who campaigned for vaginal mesh ops to be suspended, called for an urgent review of the uses of mesh for other procedures.
She said: "It has taken years for the serious problems caused for women who had transvaginal mesh used in their surgical treatment to be resolved but it appears to be affecting other conditions too."
She warned: "We can't repeat the mistakes of the past."
Roseanna added: "I would like for mesh never to be used again but our petition is asking for its use to be suspended until there are proper guidelines."
She wants the use of mesh devices and stitches to be suspended while a review of surgical procedures which implant any form of polyester, polypropylene or titanium – such as for hernias and hysterectomies – is carried out and guidelines established.
Roseanna also called for all GP surgeries to have someone trained in mesh complications so people get the treatment and pain relief they need.
Ironically, she campaigned with a friend treated with vaginal mesh for an end to that procedure, little realising the product was causing her own symptoms.
After years of campaigns the Scottish Government completed a review into vaginal mesh implants used in the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence in women.
Complications included pain during intercourse, bowel and bladder perforations, crippling nerve damage, lifelong pain and mobility problems.
In 2014 the Scottish Government suspended the use of mesh for all but "exceptional circumstances" but its use was not halted until 2018.
The Scottish Government said two reviews were commissioned after concerns over mesh use in hernia repair.
A spokeswoman said: "The evidence supports the continued use of mesh in a variety of abdominal wall and groin hernia but of course, patient preference should be a key consideration."
She said health boards were told to ask that alternative procedures be considered "for those who wish them".
"Whilst transvaginal mesh is halted, some other procedures which use mesh are complex and long established, with few, if any, viable alternatives.
"To suspend their use would leave a cohort of people with limited or no treatment options."
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